Come, friends, and read my words. I am a mambo of Louisiana Vodoun, a high priestess of a faith maligned and parodied by popular American culture. I have made note that the media often seizes upon the "shocking" at the expense of truth. Vodoun, which is pejoritively called Voodoo, is a religion which has had its image tarnished, mostly by Hollywood. I volunteered to write the text for this page because I admire the goals of Swampwitch and I hope that in doing so, I may educate a few people who would otherwise think us nothing but chicken murdering zombies--a description which makes me laugh.

Much of what I would want to tell you is forbidden to be told. I am under oath to the Vodoun deities not to reveal their secrets to the uninitiated. This is not cult secrecy, mind you. This is the tradition of a religion which is generally passed down from priest or priestess to practitioner, and from the deities down to all Vodoun.

Yes, Vodoun is not a cult but an actual living religion. Some 50 million people around the world are Vodoun practitioners in one form or another. In the United States, Louisiana has a long Vodoun history and a thriving population of Vodoun. This I know, for I walk among them and tend to them.

Like many religions, Vodoun is a combination of faiths--African, native Carribean, and Catholicism. Vodoun arose from all three and incorporates elements from this triad. African slaves found their indiginous deities in the Catholic saints, and so the religion of their homeland continued in this new structure.

The word VODOUN can be traced to the word "vodu", which meant spirit in the language of the Dahomean homeland of Africa. This original word was twisted by Creole speakers until it arrived at being one of the many terms synonymous with Vodoun that exist today. Two terms popular outside the Vodoun community, "Voodoo" and "Hoodoo", are considered insulting by many of us.

"What does a Vodoun DO?" That is the question I am most often asked. It surprises me. We among the Vodoun do what members of other faiths do--we serve our gods, the loa. The number of the loa is enormous and changes to accomidate local deities. Damballah the Serpent is Father of the loa.

In my tradition, we work with five main deities and a host of others as we need and can feed them. Damballah of course is with us, hissing his wisdom into our ears. His wife Aida Wedo, the Rainbow, stands with him. Erzulie is the loa of sexuality, beauty and love. Maitre Carrefour (also called Legba) is guardian of the threshold between the domain of the loa and our human world. Finally, there is Baron Samedi, a trickster deity of death.

Vodoun believe that the doings of the loa appear in all facets of daily human life. Pleasing the loa will gain the Vodoun health, spiritual contentment, and material wealth. We call this serving the loa, and it is most often done through ritual. Using a veve, a pattern drawn on the ground in flour, wheat, corn meal, brick dust, or other colored powder, the needed loa is called into the Vodoun ceremony through a practitioner and Maitre Carrefour and magic is wrought.


A typical veve for the loa Erzulie

Yes, in some instances, the loa is fed the blood of a sacrificial animal (later cooked for the group) as it inhabits the Vodoun, or "rides his horse". But more and more groups are electing to go with a symbolic feeding of the gods, as mine does.

I dare reveal no more to you. I think this is an adequate introduction to Vodoun. Remember that you cannot become a Vodoun until the loa choose you! For more academic information, please consult The Vodoun Information Pages, which is an excellent resource on the religion as it is world wide.

Thank you for reading. May the loa bless you!

Jeanmaire Lafayette

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